• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.575-593
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• 2002

Based on the Mindlin plate theory, a refined discrete 15-DOF triangular laminated composite plate finite element RDTMLC with the re-constitution of the shear strain is proposed. For constituting the element displacement function, the exact displacement function of the Timoshenko's laminated composite beam as the displacement on the element boundary is used to derive the element displacements. The proposed element can be used for the analysis of both moderately thick and thin laminated composite plate, and the convergence for the very thin situation can be ensured theoretically. Numerical examples presented show that the present model indeed possesses the properties of higher accuracy for anisotropic laminated composite plates and is free of locking even for extremely thin laminated plates.